Fine MotorToddlersPreschoolers26 Comments
This is one of my favorite activities I’ve pinned several times. A simple, oh-so-simple toddler activity using pom poms (or cotton balls) and paper towel tubes and a little bit of tape. That’s it!
A pom pom drop for toddler to keep busy with and even preschoolers would love joining in on this!
I recently pinned it again from Teaching Mama’s 20 ways to keep a toddler busy and realized we finally just have to finally do this activity!
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Do I need to even explain it?
I taped a few paper towel tubes and toilet paper tubes to the wall using painter’s tape.
And handed the kids a bowl of pom poms.
That’s all. Told you it was a simple pom pom drop. We like simple!
They watched the pom poms fly through the tubes to the bowl or hitting the floor.
Sometimes they’d put too many through at one time and they’d get stuck and have to poke them through.
I put some of the paper towel tubes straight up and down for the pom poms to fall straight through. Others, I put at a diagonal (being careful to think where the pom pom will actually fall out and drop).
I thought the diagonal chutes would draw more attention, but alas, I’m proven wrong. The straight ones were the hit to watch them fall fast!
Tearing down the chutes were half the fun! Something about painter’s tape makes for fun cleanup for my kids! Do yours love peeling it off and wadding it up as much as mine?
More fun pom pom activities for toddlers:
Doing an Activity with Both a Toddler & Preschooler? These 3 Questions Help Me
32 Objects for Strengthening Fine Motor Skills
14 Learning Activities for Toddlers
Challenge Kids to Drop the String in the Cup
A Week of Things to Do With Toddlers
Just wanted to let you know my spin on this activity- first I taped toilet paper tubes to the wall, but they came off. So I glued them to advertising magnets we have on the door/fridge. Now they’re totally moveable by little hands and can be played with over and over (and more independently). Thanks for the inspiration!
Fantastic idea!! Thanks so much for sharing Ilana!
Would ones and twos be safer using ping pong balls and cotton balls rather than Pom pond? Seems like cotton balls might get stuck.
Pom poms sorry
I love this idea! Thank you for sharing. Sorry this is a dumb question but would the tape damage the paint on our walls? Is painters tape designed to be safe to stick and remove on the walls?
Yes its designed to – that’s the reason to use it. However, its not always perfect, so test it on your walls if you’re worried. Sometimes its better to remove right away instead of letting it sit for days.
I tried this once for my 1 year old but the 4 year old took over. All in all, a success, just need to try again in a larger space where they can both more easily move about. Plus, the 4 year old wanted to shake up the configuration into cool designs. Definitely need to try again soon. Thanks for the reminder.
Thank you so much for sharing! I had all the items for this activity, I even added some neon sticks and my little one loved it. This is perfect for a cold winter day.
Oh the neon sticks would be SO much fun!!!